Brussels, Belgium,
19
September
2022
|
14:10 PM
Europe/Amsterdam

Goodyear’s 63% sustainable-material demonstration truck tire strengthens the company's vision for helping to drive efficiency and sustainability for commercial fleets

  • During IAA Transportation, Goodyear presented an innovative demonstration truck tire made with 63% sustainable-material content*, demonstrating the company’s focus on selecting more sustainable materials for its products.
  • Goodyear’s integrated offer of products and mobility solutions is a step towards a mobility ecosystem helping customers achieve their sustainability goals.

The 63% sustainable-material demonstration truck tire includes 15 featured ingredients across 20 tire components, including those described below. This demonstration tire is labelled “A” in fuel efficiency meaning it can offer the same fuel saving as the most efficient Goodyear truck tires currently offered. 

  • Carbon black is included in tires for compound reinforcement and to help increase their tread life and has traditionally been made by burning various types of petroleum or coal tar-based products. This demonstration tire features four different carbon blacks that are produced from plant-based oil, end-of-life tire pyrolysis oil, carbon dioxide capture and conversion and a low-carbon methane pyrolysis process.
  • Some of the petroleum-based oils in this demonstration tire were replaced by the use of rapeseed oil. Rapeseed oil is a bio-based resource that helps keep a tire's rubber compound pliable in changing temperatures. The use of bio-based rapeseed oil is in line with the company's goal of fully replacing petroleum-derived oils in its products by 2040.
  • Silica is an ingredient often used in tires to help improve grip and reduce fuel consumption. This demonstration tire contains a unique variety of silica produced from rice husk ash, a byproduct of rice processing that is often discarded and put into landfills. A high-quality silica has been produced from this waste ash.
  • Polyester is recycled from plastic bottles and other plastic waste by reverting the polyester into its base chemicals and reforming them into technical grade polyester feasible for tire cords, which enables better retreadability.

In the future, this demonstration tire can be connected and monitor a variety of tire health parameters. This has the potential to reduce waste and increase efficiency by maintaining ideal pressure and tire condition. Monitoring the health of the tire is an important factor in determining whether or when a tire can be renewed, thus potentially contributing to circularity and increasing efficiency. 

This demonstration truck tire is in line with the company's commitment to increase the use of sustainable materials. Additionally, a tire made of sustainable materials, providing low rolling resistance and being fully retreadable, with the possibility of connecting to tire health monitoring with the Goodyear Total Mobility solution, has the potential to positively affect circularity and climate impact. Goodyear Total Mobility is an end-to-end fleet offering that brings together its full range of premium commercial truck tires, its suite of data-driven monitoring and predictive analytics solutions, and more than 2,000 service locations across Europe. 

Grégory Boucharlat, Vice President Commercial Europe:Development of our integrated offering of products and mobility solutions under the Goodyear Total Mobility umbrella can further support our customers in the demanding transport market and help them in achieving their own sustainability goals. Goodyear is committed to the development of products and solutions that help support the ambitions and aspirations of our business partners to be more competitive, more efficient and more sustainable.”

The direction of developing the Goodyear Total Mobility solution is consistent with the expectations and challenges faced by the transport industry in Europe. The recent Sustainable Reality Survey, conducted with the participation of over 1,400 representatives of the transport industry, confirms that achieving sustainable development goals is an important objective of the transport fleet business. Goodyear Total Mobility and the concept of creating a truck tire made from sustainable materials should support transport companies in achieving that objective in the coming years.

* The 63% sustainable-material truck tire presented at IAA Transportation has been produced as a demonstration tire.